No. 1172

Chicken Halibut Baked and with Parmesan

Jeune Fletan au Gratin et au Parmesan

Boil some slices of halibut in a court bouillon (No. 38); lay in a baking dish a border of potato croquette preparation (No. 2782), either hard and shaped with the hand and channeled, or else soft and pushed through a pocket. Have a layer of bechamel (No. 409) on the bottom of the dish, then one of the shredded fish, another layer of bechamel, and one more of the fish, finishing with the bechamel; sprinkle over with bread-crumbs, and grated parmesan, pour over a little butter, and brown in a hot oven.

With Parmesan.—Prepare the same and make a solid paste by mixing together butter and parmesan cheese with a pinch of cayenne pepper, work it well and roll it out to an eighth of an inch in thickness; cover the last layer of bechamel with this, and brown nicely in the hot oven.

← No. 1171 Halibut, with Fine Herbs a la Reynal Cod, Haddock & Halibut No. 1173 Chicken Halibut with Carrot Sauce →

For the Modern Kitchen

Escoffier-era gratins like this one are assembled from components the book numbers elsewhere; the cook is expected to have court bouillon, bechamel and potato croquette paste already in hand. Nothing here is difficult once those three are made.

"Chicken halibut"Not poultry: a trade name for a small young halibut, the size implied varying by market and period. Any firm white flatfish fillet works; skinless halibut steaks are the closest supermarket equivalent.
Poach, do not boil"Boil" is the book's wording; treat it as a gentle poach. Bring the court bouillon to a bare shiver and hold the fish 6-8 minutes per inch of thickness, until it just parts. Halibut is lean and turns cottony the moment it goes past done, and it cooks again under the gratin.
Court bouillon (No. 38)A court bouillon of this type is broadly water with wine or vinegar, aromatic vegetables, herbs and salt; see the book's own No. 38 for its composition and quantities.
Bechamel (No. 409)Follow the book's own No. 409; period bechamels are frequently richer than the modern default. Keep it thick enough to coat a spoon heavily, or the layers will slump and the crumb topping will sink.
Potato croquette paste (No. 2782)Riced potato bound with egg and butter; see No. 2782 for the book's own seasoning. Pushed through a "pocket" -- a piping bag -- around the rim of the dish it forms a wall that holds the layers; shaped by hand and channeled, as the recipe allows, it browns into ridges.
A hot ovenThe book gives no temperature; a modern oven at the hot end, roughly 425-450F, matches the intent. The dish goes in already cooked through, so this is purely a browning heat; 10-15 minutes, or finish under a broiler if the top is pale.
The parmesan paste variantSoft butter and finely grated parmesan worked to a paste with cayenne; the recipe gives no proportions, and more cheese than butter holds together better. Roll it out to the 1/8 inch specified -- between sheets of parchment, then chilled firm, is easiest to lift onto the sauce.
YieldNot stated. A gratin dish built on two pounds of halibut and about three cups of bechamel serves six as a first course, four as a main.

A Little History

Au gratin in the nineteenth-century kitchen meant a dish finished with crumbs and browned in a fierce oven, and it was one way to serve fish that had already been cooked. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894, built the whole book on this cross-referenced system, so that a single gratin draws on a court bouillon, a bechamel and a croquette paste catalogued hundreds of pages apart. The piped potato border is characteristic of the period: it turns a shallow dish into a vessel and gives the plate a finished edge. "Chicken halibut" was a market term for the small fish, which were generally rated above the very large ones for eating quality.